Check Point launches cyber security platform with autonomous threat prevention

Check Point has introduced its next-generation unified cyber security platform, Check Point R81.

According to the cyber security firm, the new platform is the industry's first to deliver autonomous threat prevention designed for the entire distributed enterprise, enabling IT staff to manage the most complex and dynamic network environments easily and efficiently.

Check Point says enterprises have accelerated their digital transformation programmes and changed IT priorities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased their cyber risk exposure and risen the complexity of managing employees remotely. 71% of security professionals reported an increase in cyber threats since the beginning of the pandemic.

Addressing the need for better security and less complexity, demands consolidation and automation of threat prevention technologies, processes, and policies to make protection smarter and more efficient across organisations' complex, distributed networks, it says.

Chris Rodriguez, IDC's Network Security Research Manager, says managing IT security today is hard because of more devices, more threats, and more applications spread across the datacenter, network and multiple clouds.

"To keep up, enterprises need a consistent security policy, unified threat management, and automation to prevent the latest security threats," he says.

"Check Points R81 security management platform unifies and simplifies threat management through rapid security policy installation, zero touch gateway software upgrades, security profiles, and AI-based threat prevention."

Check Point R81 cyber security platform delivers:

• Highest levels of security with autonomous threat prevention:  R81 has the industry's first autonomous Threat Prevention system, which eliminates labor-intensive manual threat classification and updates. All gateways are updated automatically by AI-based threat prevention for complete protection against even zero-day threats. R81s new Infinity threat prevention policy enables security teams to implement in a single click, security best practices that then continuously update automatically.
• Rapid response to changing security needs with fastest policy installation: Reducing policy installation time by up to 90%, from minutes to seconds. Moreover, security admins can upgrade hundreds of remote gateways to the new release in a click of a button.
• Automatic security performance optimisation: R81 uses dynamic allocation of gateway resources across the enterprise to deliver automatically the best hardware performance and security.
• Optimal security for encrypted network traffic (SSL): R81 utilises the latest standards for secure connectivity including TLS 1.3 and HTTP/2, and ensures threats cannot hide in encrypted traffic. A dedicated policy layer allows the admin to control easily the decision to inspect or bypass network traffic.

"Today's fast-paced changes to business applications and deployments to the cloud require organisations to be more agile than ever before but this also exposes them to greater security risks and advanced threats," says Itai Greenberg, VP of Product Management at Check Point Software Technologies.

"Our new R81 platform gives IT and security teams holistic visibility, automated threat prevention and granular control over their entire network environment, making it easier to plan, check and quickly deploy changes to serve business need while strengthening their security and compliance postures."